Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus secondary alcohol dehydrogenase mutants with improved racemization activity

• Racemization of enantiopure phenyl-ring-containing alcohols using different mutants of TeSADH at Trp-110 site.
• Racemization of enantiopure phenyl-ring-containing alcohols using W110A/I86A/C295A TeSADH.
• W110G TeSADH and W110A/I86A/C295A TeSADH are more efficient catalysts for racemization than other W110 mutants.

Controlled racemization of enantiopure alcohols is a key step in dynamic kinetic resolution. We recently reported the racemization of enantiopure phenyl-ring-containing alcohols using W110A Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus secondary alcohol dehydrogenase (W110A TeSADH), which relies on selectivity mistakes. Trp-110 lines the large pocket of the active site of TeSADH, which allows W110A TeSADH mutant to accommodate phenyl-ring-containing substrates in Prelog mode, albeit with selectivity mistakes. Here, we report the racemization of enantiopure phenyl-ring-containing alcohols using several Trp-110 mutants of TeSADH in the presence of the oxidized and reduced forms of nicotinamide–adenine dinucleotide. We observed a noticeable enhancement in racemization efficiency when W110G TeSADH was used compared with W110Q, W110M, W110L, W110I, and W110V. This observation was anticipated because the W110G mutation is expected to open the large pocket of the active site to a greater extent compared to other mutants of TeSADH at W110. Both enantiomers of 1-phenyl-2-propanol and 4-phenyl-2-butanol were fully racemized by W110G TeSADH. We also constructed a triple mutant of TeSADH, W110A/I86A/C295A, by site-directed mutagenesis with the aim of opening the two pockets of the active site of TeSADH. The W110A/I86A/C295A mutant was employed to racemize enantiopure phenyl-ring-containing alcohols. The current study demonstrates that W110G and W110A/I86A/C295A TeSADH are more efficient catalysts for the racemization of enantiopure secondary alcohols than the previously reported mutant W110A TeSADH [6].

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